Blizzard has long been the king of April Fools’ day joke but this one takes the cake. Check it out.
Mine is bigger than yours!
Aye, thus she spoke.
I Bought What?!? (Yep, it’s Star Trek)
So, as many of you know, I’m not the biggest fan of Cryptic Studios. From where I’m sitting, they strike me as a company that rushes MMOs out the door that desperately need more time to polish. This, as far as I can see, is in the hope of getting some quick cash and avoiding the ‘OMG delay!!1’ response from the interwebz. They’re also not the best with PR or judging their fan base – at least initially. To their credit, they’ve responded to player outcry nearly every time it’s peaked (though, I think the more pressing question is why so much has been allowed to happen that would cause a public outcry in the first place, but I digress…).
It may come as a surprise, then, that I’ve decided to try out Star Trek Online. I didn’t expect to find myself here, even as late as this morning, but there are a few things that made me decide to take the leap.
The first is, well, that it’s cheap and I’m an MMO blogger. This was always the looming reason I felt compelled to give it a go even though Champions soured my opinion of the company. Playing and writing about MMOs is my hobby and this game made a splash, so shouldn’t I know what I’m talking about? If I’m going to criticize a company, I feel better at least having some first hand experience.
My secret hope, though, is that I’ll tap into the same goodness people like Blue Kae, Tipa, and Syp have and I’ll be able to give Cryptic a second chance. I don’t like looking at things in a negative light—I’m a positive guy. So, if I go in, have some fun, my opinion will probably change and educating yourself is always a good thing.
Second, I’m a Star Trek fan and those space combat videos just look awesome. I mean, check this out:
Not only do the environments look absolutely fantastic but those battles could have been taken straight out of The Next Generation. Ground combat, I hear, is pretty clunky. I’m putting that to the side, though, since I’m only in it for the photon torpedoes anyways. Phasers? Psh. Those things always reminded me of overblown thermometers anyways.
Finally, I’m give it a shot because my friends, new and old, are playing. It might sound like a shallow reason, since it has nothing to do with the actual game. But, I’ll be the first person to tell you that I’m a social gamer. The people can make it or break it for me. Right now, I find myself most excited not about exploring the game alone, but about exploring it with people like Kae and Tipa, and the two RL friends who are also in.
You’re looking at someone who wouldn’t have touched this game before his friends joined. If that doesn’t speak to the power of player connections, then nothing will.
I’ve read a lot about the downsides to the game, so I’m aware that it won’t compare to other, bigger, MMOs. You know what though? In the moment, I’m alright with that. My expectations are low for everything but ship combat. I don’t expect to play “Orcs in Space: Universe of Warcraft.” I’ve been there with The Burning Crusade. Here, I’m just looking for a Star Trek experience with some friendly faces.
After all, it’s only a month. If it turns out to be more, than that could only mean something good.
First Days in Everquest 2
Happy Monday, folks!
As I mentioned on a recent episode of our podcast, I never quite felt like I gave Everquest 2 a proper chance. Several of my friends and favorite bloggers play it almost exclusively, so I’ve always felt a bit of a gap in my MMO knowledge by not having played more of it. Well, never fear, because that’s officially changing!
My routine of dungeon running in WoW leaves a lot of open space in my gaming schedule, so last Thursday bit the bullet and re-upped. In truth, my new motherboard/processor combo was set to arrive on Friday, and I wanted the opportunity to see the performance shine; it was a little splurge to feel good about my other, bigger, splurge on the new hardware. Lo and behold, I was right. I’m now rocking on “Very High Quality” graphics settings and getting 30-50+ FPS outside of towns and villages. Not bad compared to the 20ish I was getting on “High Performance.”
But, back to my experiences.
If the whole game looked this this, I'd be sold for good.
Let me get this out of the way first, unless you have a fast processor and decent graphics card (the latter being more important, it seems), EQ2 fails to impress — that is, if you value good graphics, which certainly varies from player to player. For me, anyways, I was initially let down. When I first created my character, some month or two ago, the game had assessed my system as suiting the “High Performance” setting, which really does the game little justice. Ground clutter is in a small circle around you. Textures seems to ram into one another with no blending. Shadows are at the most minimal across the terrain. In short, coming from WoW and LotRO, it felt like I’d stepped in a time machine back five years. And, at that, with modern day hardware, I was still getting a choppy play experience.
Fast forward to today. I’m now running with a 3.0GHz processor, 4 gigs of semi-slow RAM, and a 260GTX. With this set up, I’m able to kick the graphics up enough to where the game looks much, much better. There is still the issue with texture ramming, but it’s something I think I can get used to. On “High Quality,” character and building models look SO much better that the original “step back” effect is almost eliminated. It’s just a shame that the game is so processor dependent. I can’t help but feel like the game could do a lot better if they were to get performance in line with the graphics level. As a new player, those months ago, it was a major turn-off to play the game that way. If you’re coming from WoW, brace yourself.
The more important question, though, is how did it play. I’m happy to report that I’ve been having quite a bit of fun this time around. The combat is colorful and full of flair. You know, it’s a small things, but I appreciate a little bit of flash in my combat. When you have the same hotbar-focused, button mashing, gameplay in every game, it’s nice to get a little bit of eye-candy. Questing is pretty standard, but that’s to be expected. They seem to have a little bit of charm to them, though. One quest, for example, has you lure lizards into the tendrils of a flesh eating plant. Another has you investigate a small mine lead by Tucan Sam impersonators. Overall, it’s nothing new, but enjoyable enough to not be cumbersome.
There’s a lot the EQ2 offers that other games don’t. I mean, the game is filled to the brim with content. They seem to put out expansion every six months and regular patches on top of that. I’m looking forward to checking out some of the big name activities other players have told me about: mid-level raids, tons of dungeons, fully customizable housing, extensive crafting, and more.
I don’t know whether the game will ultimately be for me. I’m still having a lot of fun in WoW, and I still have lots of leveling/dungeon running left to do on my DK. But, since I’ve lacked the motivation to push too far into Angmar in LotRO, this might just give me something other than Split/Second to fill my free time.
It occurs to me now that it probably seems pretty shallow of me to come back with a positive write-up like this. After all, the only thing that’s changed is that I can turn the graphics up a little bit. I guess I have to admit to being a little shallow. It’s a little hard to step down, visually, once you’ve gotten used to the art style and fidelity of one game. But, as the more devoted among us are quick to remind, it’s the gameplay that counts. Let’s put that to the test 🙂
An Update on Real Life (or, why haven’t I been writing lately?)
Bear with me here, because I know a lot of you only stop by to read about gaming. That’s cool. I like to think some of you may have noticed my lack of updates though and might care what’s going on. It bears a little explanation. It’s been rough patch, all, and that’s putting it lightly.
This last week has been a little more than crazy. We’ve had taxes to do, mid-terms to study for and lose sleep over, a washer/dryer to shop for, and trying to find the best value in an HDTV for $500 – which is a lot more confusing than you’d think when you’re starting from scratch. I’ve also been substituting more and even got to teach P.E. yesterday with 6th-8th graders. That takes us up to, say, Tuesday for the mundane stuff? But that’s about the least of it.
My step-father had a heart attack on Monday and landed in the ICU. He had fluid built up around his heart when it actually happened, so he could barely breathe. At about 2AM in the morning, he was able to get enough breath to wake my mother up to call the ambulance.
My mother and sister are having a hard time with it. Just today, my sister found out the extent of what’s going on and seems to be avoiding going to the hospital to see him (she’s scared of seeing her dad that way). And me? I’ve been putting up a strong face because that’s how I’ve learned to handle things.
He’s had heart attacks before (lifelong smoker, even though we’ve tried everything, everything, to get him to quit), so this isn’t exactly new. Or, that’s what I tried to think. The truth is, his health has been getting worse over the years and, no matter how much I try to forget it or not notice, there’s no denying. This was probably his most serious heart attack to date, in an already weakened state, with extra problems that came up as a result.
My sister reads this blog, so here’s the important part (Katie, if you’re seeing this, pay attention): he’s doing better now. They have him stabilized and there are a couple of options his doctors are looking at. He’s still in the ICU though and, until he’s out, things are going to remain tough.
I’ll be honest. I hate this. I hate that we’ve been in this state of perpetual fear before. I hate that it’s all about the not knowing and the what-ifs. And I hate that I can try to push it off for only so long before the reality of it all hits home.
More than anything, I hate cigarettes and that they’ve cut years and years off of my step-dad’s life.
Did I mention he’s in his forties? Or that this marks his tenth, no joke, tenth heart attack, not to mention the angina that’s occurred over the years as well? Or that he’s had open heart surgery already? That he avoids going to the hospital for the inevitable fear it strikes into everyone?
All of this I’ve known, and dealt with, and tried to forget (we all have), over the last 15 years.
We’ll pull out of this one. I know that. Katie, I hope you know that. Things will be okay and God will take care of us, no matter what.
But it still sucks.
So that’s why you haven’t seen me lately. I have been gaming, to some degree, to get away from things, but my focus has been on real life this week. Gaming has been short, too. No MMOs. Ten minutes here, ten minutes there, before it’s back to whatever life has for me at the moment.
So, I apologize that it’s been slow around here. Things should be back to normal soon. I’m hoping we can get my step-father home within the next couple of days and mid-terms are now behind me. In other words, I’m really hoping things can get back to normal soon.
In the meantime, consider signing up for an RSS service like Google Reader (it works with your Google account) and subscribing to the feed over on the right. That’ll make sure you’ll know as soon as my next post goes up. Hopefully, tomorrow, and, hopefully, it’ll end this two-week dry spell life has caused.
Oh, and one last thing. If you could, send up your well wishes to whatever you believe in. It would mean a lot to my family. It’s important for my sister to know that being scared is okay. It’s love that matters, and that everything will be alright.
Thanks,
Chris
The Multiverse – Episode #12 “Guest Starring: Jon of Drunken Legacy (the Raidisode)
Our first raidisode!
Happy Monday Folks,
And you know what that means; another Monday means another Multiverse! We’re up to Episode 12 now and we brought a guest along to join the fun. This week Jon (Maxivik) of the Drunken Legacy guild joined us to talk about raiding. As a long time member and officer in a leading WoW guild, he knows his stuff and it shows in the discussion. Thanks Jon, for joining us. You’re welcome back any time.
That’s not all though. Since we took a week off, we got to save up on some of the biggest news stories from the time in between. We talk about Derek Smart and Alganon, EA an SW:TOR, and Bill Roper stepping down from Champions. Was he made to step down or was it time for him to move on?
Thanks again for joining us. If you get a moment, we encourage you to participate in the show by dropping us an email or leaving a comment below. And don’t forget how much we love 5-star reviews on iTunes! They melt my pudding. Seriously.
Here are this week’s notes:
Vagary Homepage
Subscribe to the Show
iTunes Feed
Download Here (right click, save as)
Listen Here: [audio: http://vagary.tv/multiverse/episodes/multiverse12.mp3]
Introduction:
- Welcome Jon!
- What have we been playing/where the heck were were last week?
Discussion:
- News – Derek Smart and the head that’s about to pop, Bill Roper stole our little dog too and leaves Champions, and EA sets RIDICULOUSLY LOW goals for SW:TOR. Come on guys, get some ambition already.
- Raiding – What is it really, and why are we crazy enough to do it.
Shout Outs:
- Vagabond Gaming (latest post)
- Darktide Productions (latest post)
- Stylish Corpse (latest post)
- Rockefeller Channel Crew of Enter The Game
Contact Info/Host Sites
- Email us at: multiversepodcast@gmail.com
- Chris’ Site: Game By Night
- Ferrel’s Site: Epic Slant
- Riknas’ Site: Riknas Rants
Has Evil Left the Building?
Evil
Or: Ever Just Want to be Bad?
A good friend of mine and writer here, Ryan, just got a promotion in a game he’s been playing for the last ten years. He’s now an “immortal,” which in MMO terms means guild leader/staff member. His achievement came with a lot of accolades but what I found most interesting was his goal: to destroy every good following in the game.
Sound a little extreme? Well, it’s not really. The game he was promoted in is a MUD, and one that still lets players choose between good and evil. Ryan, of course, chose evil.
The whole thing got me thinking, can we really be evil anymore? I mean, sure, there are classes and races the game tells us are evil, like warlocks or drow, but I wonder how much further it goes than character creation. Can a single player really be evil?
They can be good. You can buff your fellow players, offer them help on a tough quest line, etc. Then you have dungeons, where players band together for the “greater good” of quelling whatever threat lies within.
But as a player, sometimes I just want to be bad. I want to plot. I want to connive. I want to trick, and betray, and kill. But not my friends, of course. I want to be feared.
VERY Evil
I was always like this. In the days of MUDs, I was a PK’er and gave each character a backstory for why they were so murderous.
And every step of the way was some “good” guy wanting to wreck my fun.
Well, let me tell you, we didn’t get along very well.
But, with the jump to modern MMOs, all of this has lost its point.
So, I wonder: has evil left the building?
In most games, I believe the answer is yes. PvE necessitates it. You can’t have people killing each other left and right in dungeons. Betrayal begets whining. Theft equals inequality, where what you’ve spent “countless hours” earning can change hands without your knowing.
In short, evil is only fun for the people being evil.
More importantly though, evil was nullified when death became meaningless. There’s not much point in it when your enemy has nothing to lose.
Then, what’s left isn’t being “evil.” It’s being a griefer. The truth is, most of us that want to play an evil character are actually decent people. It’s not about wrecking your day, it’s about how we make our own fun and roleplay.
Yeah, yeah, I know know roleplay is lame and all that. But, the fact is, if you take roleplay out, you’re left with some guy being a jerk to another. That’s not what it’s about and that’s why most self-respecting “evil” players have given up the ghost. The ones that are left are the mouth breathers. The newbie killers. The corpse campers. You know who I’m talking about.
That’s not us and it’s not what we wanted. See, we wanted you to be good and us to be evil. We wanted war, baby, not to be jerks. There’s a difference.
So, to sum it all up, evil is in the eye of the beholder. The difference is, the game will support being good. You make your own evil, past character creation.
Just remember to play nice.
Out fishing until Friday
Hey Gang,
Just an update that I’ll be out and about until this Friday. See you then!
~Chris
Will Cataclysm Last Long Enough?
Heading into the weekend, I like to leave us with a bit of speculation to mull over. Everyone’s excited for Cataclysm, right? It’s Blizzard’s most ambitious expansion yet and plans to reshape to legacy game we’ve come to know so well. It’s also planning on adding five extra levels to the end game and launch with more raid content than any expansion that’s come before it.
And that right there is the crux for me. Will Cataclysm be enough to keep players satisfied for the next two years? Based on this, I’d say no, probably not.
Five Levels
I’ve talked before about ten levels per expansion being a little bit much. Yet, as I’ve thought about the trek from level 1-85, the more I’ve come to realize that if you’re halving the leveling content, other things need to step up to fill in the void.
Big questions come out of this. Namely, how long will it take to hit 85, and how will they balance progress/activity to prevent it from becoming a grind? If it’s too quick, players will feel jipped. If it’s too slow, they’ll become frustrated.
The psychology behind it is important. By halving the amount of levels to be gained, a perception of less content is created. Or, alternatively, a perception of more grind takes its place. In either case, the end-game needs to be there for every single player more than ever before. It needs to shine to compensate for that change in psychology from previous expansions. And that’s true for everything, not just raiding which they seem to be aware of.
Heroics
Marwyn - Halls of Reflection
Now, we all know that leveling is really just a barrier before players hit the end game. Eventually, everyone will hit 85 and go about their business. Before anyone hits the raid content, however, they’ll have to begin with heroics which, I believe, is probably the biggest issue.
With 5-levels less of a range to work with, I think that we’ll probably see fewer heroics than in previous expansions. Red alert. Fewer heroics might lower the barrier to raiding but it also lowers the barrier to burn out. Nothing will wear people out quicker than forced repetition. But, maybe I’m wrong. Yet, that would seem to raise a totally different issue.
With only five levels to work with, it’d be a lot harder to itemize for the same amount of heroics. With less of a progress, we enter into the realm of lateral upgrades. I don’t know about you, but I don’t get too excited about the option of +2 int or +2 stamina. What does it really matter? Yet, providing better itemization for some dungeons and not others, in the same level bracket, will only mean the worse ones get ignored.
The main issue is that less heroics equals quicker burn out. We all run them, raiders or not, so this is a big issue. I remember being concerned about burn out when WotLK launched with fewer 5-mans than than TBC. Sure enough, people got tired of it quicker. Cataclysm? If you’re a non-raider, it looks like the end game might just wear out a lot quicker for you.
Rolling an Alt -or- Raiding
The answer, of course, is to roll an alt and experience the new content. Personally, that’s the first thing I’m going to do; I can’t wait. But, not everyone enjoys leveling. Actually, by now, most dedicated players will probably have numerous level 70-80 characters. So, unless those players can “do it all over again” or they’re out of luck.
Raiding is the next best answer, after leveling and heroics are worn out. But, the fundamental problem that plagues not just WoW but every raid-centric game, is that it’s an activity not allowed on the player’s own terms. If you want to raid, you have to find and align yourself with a group of players in similar circumstances to your own. For a lot of players, that is the insurmountable barrier that has and will continue to keep them from progression raiding.
My Prediction
Which brings me to my most optimistic point in the article, there is an answer. There’s an answer for all of it: open the doors of raiding to players on their own terms. And how?
A Cross-Server Looking for Raid (LFR) Tool.
The success of the Cross-Server LFD tool has clearly shown Blizzard that this is the way forward. According to The Instance #181, they’re even planning on bringing the tool (single server, of course) into guild recruitment. Which begs the question: where is the Looking for Raid tool? You know it’s coming.
And my prediction is that, this technology, the one that will literally blow any non-gear barrier off the face of raiding, will come with the expansion with more raid content than ever before.
That’s the only solution in my mind. Of course, raid ID’s will need to be worked out. But, we have to be honest: you know, I know, and Blizzard knows that World of Warcraft is not the powerhouse it used to be. It hasn’t grown in two years. Letting players burn out on the end-game quicker than ever before will push it to a decline, and who wants that?
Let me be clear here, though. I love WoW. I always have. It is a good, fun, game, and I plan on leveling one, if not two, new characters through the reshaped Azeroth. As a non-raider, though, and one that wants to raid, less end-game on my end only means I’ll take my leave of WoW quicker. A raid tool like this excites me and answers all of my concerns. Here’s hoping it comes.
I’m very interested to hear everyone’s thoughts on this. I’m going to call out a couple of bloggers directly, though, since they have more insight than my own. So, Spinks (latest post) and Tobold (latest post), what do you think about this – will Cataclysm be enough to last another two years until the Emerald Dream expansion four?
Have a good weekend everyone!
PS: Ah, what the hey, it’s Friday. SynCaine (latest post), what do you think Cataclysm will bring?
God of War III: I’ve hit another milestone in my gaming career
Ladies and Gentlemen, without exaggeration, I’ve just witnessed the single most epic video game sequence in my life. I’m talking about the opening to the third installment in the God of War franchise: the final, culminating, game. I’m coming into this thing as newb as they come, having only spent around an hour with the PSP iteration, Chains of Olympus.
Click to enlarge
Imagine, you’re riding on the back of a giant woman made up entirely of rock and tree. She’s as tall as a skyscraper and as she climbs, enemies are landing on her left and right, jumping down from the peak above. Then, out of nowhere, Poseidon shows up. Except, he’s not in his “man” form. Instead, he’s a towering cyclone of water with a man’s body and snakelike arms that end in watery horse heads with spiky, crablike arms. He attacks you one arm at a time while the other (including his human shaped arms) attacks the creature that’s still climbing to the precipice.
Crab arms slam down around you causing trees to fall and the titan to cry out in pain. The first horse head sends a massive plume of water at you and then electrifies it to finish the job. But you’re Kratos and this is not the day you die. You slash away at the crab legs until you’re able to slice the spiked end of one off. Then, you hack away at the head until it rears back, allowing you to thrust the dismembered claw into its beating heart.
This all makes sense in the battle, I promise.
Click to enlarge
The titan, freed thanks to you, grabs Poseidon’s body and pulls him back. You leap and swing from her hands, sending your sailing to and through the man-form of the Sea God, landing on the other side with Poseidon in the flesh. You headbutt him, and slam him against the walls, finally dispatching him off the side of the cliff.
Sounds incredible, right? Well, it is.
I may sound like I’m easily impressed to those of you that have been console devotees for years. But, let me tell you, I’ve spent the last three immersed in MMOs where this kind of stuff doesn’t happen.
The combat was absolutely sick. You start off at full power with a bevy of incredible skills to use. Cutting through enemies is like using a steak knife to cut butter. It’s that good.
But don’t misunderstand, the game is not easy. I died several times just in the tutorial with the game set on normal. There are several different encounters with Poseidon and each one requires a different strategy. There’s a lot of trial and error until you find the right method of winning the day (at least for me, GoW vets may have a different take).
I usually play through single-player games on easy, since I’m notoriously bad at finishing them. The game seemed to pick up on this because, after a few deaths, it asked me if I wanted to lower the difficulty. I said no, though, because I always felt like grasping the fight was just beyond my reach and that I’d get it if I kept trying. I was right.
Overall, I’m am thoroughly excited to get more into this game. So much so, I could see myself choosing to play it over even Final Fantasy 13, which I would’ve never believed to be the case. And this is with only about 45 minutes played.
Has anyone else tried it yet? I’m considering picking up the collection, just from playing the tutorial.
Jaaaaaason!
If you’ve played Heavy Rain, you’ll get that. If not, watch the video and you’ll understand. This guy’s commentary made it too good not to share. Wait until the end.
